1823.] Royal Society. 46? 



in a mortar) by the movement of the heavy pebbles to which the 

 crushed fragment still adheres united by stalagmite. The bones 

 that lie in mud and sand in the same vault have not been thus 

 broken. Over the whole there is a crust of stalagmite, like that 

 in the other caverns. 



The general aspect and state of the bones in all these caverns, 

 and the circumstances attending them, are very similar to those 

 the author had observed in cavernous fissures at Plymouth. 



The caves in Franconia are situated in an elevated tract of 

 land which forms one of the central water-heads of Europe, near 

 the sources of the Mayn and Naab, and between the towns of 

 Nurenberg, Bareuth, and Bamberg. They are in a bed of lime- 

 stone locally called hbhlen kalk (hole limestone), being a variety 

 of the Jura limestone, or younger alpine limestone of the Con- 

 tinent. 



This district is full of caverns, many of which are crowded 

 with bones (principally of bears), while others are wholly desti- 

 tute of them ; but in all, there is an accumulation of diluvial 

 sediment covered for the most part with a single crust of stalag- 

 mite. Those selected for description are the caves of Forster's 

 Hole, Rabanstein, Zahnloch, Gailenreuth, and Kiihloch. The 

 author has attended particularly to the evidences of diluvial 

 action within them all, and finds that in each case the mud and 

 pebbles were superinduced upon the bones of animals which had 

 died and become accumulated in their dens in the antediluvian 

 period when wild beasts inhabited these countries. Forster's 

 Hole is most remarkable for the beauty of its stalagmite and 

 roof. In ilabenstein, the bones and mud have been but little 

 disturbed. From Zahnloch they have been extracted for centu- 

 ries, and used under the name of bones of the licorne, or fossil 

 unicorn, for imaginary medical virtues. In this cave there is a 

 block of stone which is polished, apparently by friction from the 

 skin and paws of the antediluvian bears. At Gailenreuth, there 

 is an accumulation of bony breccia 30 feet deep or more, as the 

 bottom has not yet been penetrated ; and in Kiihloch, so great 

 a mass of black animal earth with bones dispersed through it, 

 that, allowing two cubic feet of matter for the exuvia? of each 

 individual, this single cave must contain the remains of at least 

 2600 bears, a number which may have been supplied in 1000 

 years by a mortality of two and a half per annum. The cave in 

 which this singular mass is found was probably the lowest part 

 of a large and connected series of caverns inhabited by bears, 

 and into which, during successive generations, these animals 

 retired to die. The animal matter covers the entire floor to the 

 depth of about six feet, which, being multiplied by the length 

 and breadth of the cave, shows the total quantity to be not less 

 than .0000 cubic feet: the bones and teeth dispersed through 

 this dust are much decayed, and readily crumble into the same 

 dark umber-coloured powder as that which forms the greater 



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